“What could be the drivers contributed to the spike of volume in the credit card pool?” Jessica questioned Seohyun. “Something must have contributed since the volume is more than 45% from last month?” She added as she stared at the slides projected on the big screen across from where she was seated. 

Every month each department would be having a Monthly Business Review with the VP and that week was the Customer Service Department’s turn. Seohyun’s Email Team was a sub-team from the customer services department since they were also dealing with first hands customers but in a form of emails.

 “I believe there are a few drivers that caused this. One of it was due to the Annual Fee Campaign that we had on the second week of the month which prompted most of our existing credit card customers to send in emails to ask whether they are entitled for the campaign.” Seohyun explained.

“Right. Did the campaign affected calls as well?” Jessica turned to look at another Department Manager from the call center. “Certainly Ms Jessica. It was triple the volume from last month.” He said.

In the meeting room, there were a few other Departmental Managers and Team Managers attending the meeting. Most of them were from the Call Center and only Seohyun and Sooyoung were from the Email team.

 “Do we have any other upcoming campaign involving existing customers?” Jessica asked.

“I believe there will be another campaign but that is 4months away.” One of the team managers responded.

“Tiff, can you reach out to the Marketing Team and get them to send us the list of all the upcoming campaigns for the rest of the year.” She then turned to Tiffany who was seated next to her.

“Noted Ms Jessica.” Tiffany nodded her head and wrote a note on her iPad.

“We might need to plan ahead to ensure coverage is enough. It’s good that more calls are coming in, but at the same time I can see we have registered more abandoned calls and the inbound service level decreased by 30%.” She added.

“It was starting to get quite overwhelming during the first day of the campaign and we didn’t expect that kind of volume to hit us on the first day..” One of the team managers from the call center explained.

“But this isn’t the first time the bank had campaigns. We should have foreseen all these. Unexpected volumes cannot be our reason for not having enough coverage. This could have been avoided.” Jessica refuted.

“Understood Ms Jessica.” The manager nodded in defeat. He knew no excuses could ever justify his lack of planning.

“Seo, I can see the additional headcount has tremendously helped with the team’s performance. No backlog emails for the past 3weeks. That is a massive improvement.” Jessica looked at Seohyun again. Yes, apart from Luna, they added another headcount. So Sooyoung had a total of 4 agents reporting under her. She had never met that agent yet because that was actually her first day back in the office after 8 weeks of long medical leave.  

She missed being in the office, she missed Seohyun and her staffs and most importantly she missed seeing her girlfriend at work. Jessica had a different vibe when she’s on her ‘VP mode’ and Sooyoung just found her so y and irresistible. Seeing her working at home for the past few weeks was y as well but, in the office, everything was just on another level. Jessica was wearing a black collared blouse paired with a black suit and pair of black skinny jeans. She had her hair being let down that day. The woman was certainly the sole definition of powerful and y.

Sooyoung was so distracted seeing her girlfriend being so in control of the meeting and of course being the center of attention. How could someone look that powerful yet y at the same time? All of a sudden, her thoughts went to their love making session last night. Jessica might be the boss at work, but at night, at home in bed, it was another different story. The woman didn’t mind being bossed around.

“The initial plan to run the team was to gradually having 4 headcounts managing all email pools. So, after 1 year plus, we have managed to stabilize the team. And to have a very reliable Team Manager also plays a key here.” Seohyun smiled.

“Sooyoung came up with a system that allows the agents to take turns handling each pool on a daily basis. So, one agent would only be focusing on one pool without having to switch pools. This has certainly helped us a lot with the backlog emails. Sooyoung, why don’t you explain more to Ms Jessica on the “One Pool One Agent” Plan you had.” Seohyun then placed her hand on Sooyoung’s shoulder and she was startled by the touch.

 “Huh? Hm, yes yes certainly. The email volume spiked due to the Annual Fee campaign that was running for 2weeks. We had both primary and secondary card holders reaching out to us enquiring whether they are entitled for the waiver.” Sooyoung stated oh so confidently. Everyone turned to look at her simultaneously.

“Hmm Soo..” Seohyun whispered slowly.

“Eh wait, did I get the name of the campaign wrong?” Sooyoung whispered nervously to Seohyun. “Yep it is the Annual Fee Campaign. Please don’t tell me that I didn’t pay attention during the briefing of the campaign, because I did. I am one very focused Team Manager.” She smiled widely to Seohyun.  

The Monthly Business Review lasted for almost 2 hours. Sooyoung and Seohyun were the first to leave the meeting room since some of the other team managers were still having a follow up discussion with the VP.

 “Soo, you are lucky that the lady boss inside is your girlfriend.” She smiled.

“I’m so sorry. I got so distracted.” Sooyoung mumbled. “She did warn me at home this morning about me being easily distracted.” Sooyoung explained. “I am one dead girl for sure.” She added.

“You are indeed.” Seohyun just laughed and gave the girl a hug indicating that she’s about to head down to her office room. “It would be great if you can come down and see the team for a bit though, but I know both of you are in a hurry to catch the flight.” Seohyun said after the hug.

Both Jessica and Sooyoung would need to catch the last flight to Mokpo for Soojin’s wedding. The wedding would be held in GongYoo’s hometown in the island of Hongdo. After landing in Mokpo, they would need to catch a ferry to Hongdo Island. Everyone had flown the day before but since they had this important meeting, they had to fly the next day.

“Oh god, I feel so guilty. It has been too long since I last saw everyone.” Sooyoung frowned looking at her manager.

“Aish don’t be.” Seohyun smiled. “I know you are checking up on the team even you are not in the office. I can tell that everyone is missing you of course, but they are doing fine so don’t worry too much.” Seohyun provided assurance as she slowly patted the girl’s back.

“Seo.” Suddenly Tiffany appeared. Both of them turned to look at the woman. “Ms Jessica would like to have the monthly service level report in 5mins? Would it be possible?” She asked softly. “Oh yes sure sure. I’ll go down and send it to you right away.” Seohyun nodded her head before she excused herself to go to her room down at Level 3.

“She’s still doing work? I thought we would be leaving right away?” Sooyoung looked at Tiffany. “She said she still have 30mins to spare.” Tiffany explained.

“She’s in her office now?” Sooyoung asked.

“Yep she is.”

“Oh, if that’s the case, I can go down and meet everyone then.”

“Nope, you are going in there.” Tiffany softly pushed Sooyouung towards the woman’s office room. Sooyoung carried her heavy feet towards her girlfriend’s office and before going inside, she decided to just knocked first.

The moment she opened the door, she popped her head in between the door to check on the woman. “Hm can I come in?” She asked.

“Since when do you need my permission to come in?” Jessica asked seriously as she was typing something on her laptop. Of course, Sooyoung could sense the tone which made her felt uneasy right away,

“Are you mad at me?” She entered the office room. 

“Hm not really.” She said while she was typing on her laptop.

“Are you upset then?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you are. I mean it is so obvious that you a